A week passed by.
A single gunshot shattered the silence under a slate-gray sky, high atop the tallest monolith on Yueguang. The relentless, rhythmic shriek of metal clashing against metal echoed through the air. Two figures dressed in stark black danced in the downpour; one fluidly deflected a short katana against a heavy metallic staff.
"Exzellent!" Eve shouted, watching the spar from the sidelines with keen interest.
The tip of Rose's blade whipped back in a lethal arc, grazing his opponent's throat. His pale green eyes locked onto Feng, flashing with absolute, unyielding coldness. Feng lunged, swinging her staff low in a desperate sweep to take out his legs, but the machine's reflexes were far too fast for her to predict.
"Magnificent form, Rose!" Eve praised, analyzing his operational metrics. His combat evolution was progressing at an staggering, almost terrifying velocity.
Feng stumbled back, breaking her stance. Every time her staff collided with Rose's razor-sharp blade, the sheer kinetic impact sapped the strength from her arms. She exhaled sharply, turning her head toward the sidelines. "Whoa! You taught him all of this yourself, Eve?"
"Naturally. And I have no doubt he could sever your jugular in a fraction of a second right now," Eve replied, folding her arms with a smug, supremely confident grin.
"Oh, right, right. You're just grooming him into a perfect little assassin, aren't you~?" Feng joked, spinning her staff to deflect another incoming thrust. "But I'm still not entirely satisfied."
With a sudden, explosive burst of movement, Feng extended her arm to its maximum length. The blunt tip of her staff drove forward, piercing clean through Rose's synthetic abdomen.
"Oops! I guess that concludes today's lesson," Feng smirked, jerking her weapon back and planting it firmly into the concrete.
Without a single change in facial expression, Rose sheathed his short katana into the custom housing integrated along his artificial spine; his back plates parted like a vertical scabbard to secure the weapon. Seeing her asset take a direct hit, Eve marched over to inspect the damage. "His chassis is still a bit too frail. We might need to compensate for that weakness with alternate ordinances."
"Rule number one! Never let the enemy breach your perimeter," Feng countered, wiping rain from her face.
"If you're using a firearm, you just put a bullet straight through their skull. End of story," Eve sneered, mocking Feng's philosophy.
"I highly recommend aiming for the legs instead. At least they stay alive that way," Feng argued, trying to appeal to Rose's evolving logic.
"And why the hell would you aim for the legs? Just to let them bleed out in agonizing torment?" Eve scoffed, stepping closer. "This isn't some comic book hero fantasy, Feng. This is reality, and in reality, a bullet slips and a skull rolls. Think about the enforcers of law—the men in uniforms. They neutralize a threat on the pavement permanently with a couple of rounds. Now think about a cloaked vigilante who swears an oath never to take a life. Who inspires true, unadulterated terror? The masses learn obedience when you butcher one monkey for the whole jungle to see. You don't butcher a chicken, because the monkeys don't see a chicken as one of their own anyway, do they? The law of existence is binary: kill or be killed. Don't buy into Holy Mother Feng's sermon, Rose. Stick with me, and your future will be blindingly bright." Eve gently took Rose's left hand, her voice dripping with persuasive charm.
Seeing this, Feng immediately grabbed Rose's right hand, her cybernetic eye flaring. "You certainly know how to paint a pretty picture, Eve. But luckily, Rose isn't a heartless, unprincipled species like you!"
The jab struck a nerve, instantly igniting Eve's volatile temper. In a flash, her free hand whipped out a jagged, hyper-vibrant viper blade, leveling the tip directly at Feng's throat. "You're looking for a one-way ticket to the morgue again, you damn Jiangshi. You want to see how fast I can end you?"
Anticipating the strike, Feng violently yanked Rose's body forward, utilizing the machine as a meat shield. The venomous blade plunged deep into the side of Rose's neck. Yet, the machine remained entirely stoic, offering no resistance against Eve.
Feng flipped backward, vaulting through the air and catching her metal staff on the rebound. As she spun, her hair billowed upward, exposing the nape of her neck. Etched into her synthetic skin was a distinct, intricate dragon crest—identical to the one emblazoned on the machine's left wrist.
"Oh, so we're playing dirty now? Let me show you how it's done, you psychotic bitch~" Feng taunted. She rested the staff against her shoulders, bending her knees low to aim the blunt tip directly at Eve's face.
Bang!
A heavy kinetic slug erupted from the concealed chamber within the metal staff. Eve reacted with superhuman speed, swiping her hand to redirect the projectile's trajectory straight toward Rose. Utilizing his pristine reflexes, the machine snapped his hand out, catching the bullet out of mid-air.
"This is an armor-piercing round," Rose noted clinically, examining the ammunition. It was designed to fracture human skulls—a direct contradiction to Feng's pacifist rhetoric.
"Shall we take a stroll down memory lane, sister?" Eve hissed, her face contorting into a manic grin as she spun her blades. "How about I slice you into sushi this time?"
Feng swung her staff with crushing force, striking Eve squarely across the jaw, but the impact failed to register any actual damage. "Hahaha! Ahahaha—!" Eve laughed maniacally, her jaw unhinging grotesquely under the raw force of the blow.
Watching from a calculated distance, Rose observed Feng's face tighten with an absolute, terrifying level of focus he had never seen before, contrasted by Eve's bizarre, erratic movements that defied normal combat algorithms. The viper blade flashed upward, aimed directly beneath Feng's chin.
Then, in a sudden shift of momentum, Eve intentionally deflected her own blade, using her free hand to choke-slam Feng violently onto the wet concrete. "Rule number two: never rely too heavily on your weapons," Eve whispered, offering a deceptively warm, genuine smile.
"Message received~" Feng groaned, tapping the floor in submission. Eve retrieved her discarded blade and snapped the reinforced steel in half with her bare hands.
"Never provoke this woman, Rose. Otherwise, her true alias comes out: Eva the Boneless~~ Haha!" Feng chuckled, coughing slightly as she sat up.
"That's just a ridiculous moniker Feng coined. In the underworld, they call me Lady King Cobra. I've broken men twice my size with nothing but these two fists."
"What is our next objective?" Rose intervened, looking between the two.
They both hesitated, exchanging a fleeting glance before answering.
"Tetsuo Shinsai," Eve spoke, her tone dropping into a serious register. "The Yakuza patriarch of the Eastern District. The fat man and I have been mapping out his execution for months. This target needs to be permanently removed from the board, Rose. I emphasize terminated. The man is a disease to our city and the world outside. Do you know who actually keeps this shitty island afloat? In this world, there are only two classes: the ultra-rich, and those who starve. And a broke peasant doesn't have the capital to save a city like a cartoon hero. Xu Wen is the one who commands the capital's development, and he is willing to do whatever it takes to restore order to this place."
As Eve explained, Rose turned his gaze toward Feng. Her face was taut, distorted by a profound, restless anxiety.
"We operate under his payroll, Rose. I believe it is time you were informed," Feng said, her voice trembling slightly. "For all intents and purposes... he is essentially your father."
"My father?" the machine queried internally, parsing the data.
"Because the Doctor sold your schematics and chassis directly to him," Eve explained, a wide smile spreading across her face as she looked at the machine like a proud mother. "The patent and property rights belong exclusively to him. And the most valuable asset standing on this roof... is you, Rose. Mr. Xu really is your father."
"Father, Father, Father~" Eve's voice echoed directly inside Rose's audio cortex. Rose tilted his head, studying her face.
"The Doctor liquidated my ownership to this billionaire. Consequently, I fall entirely under his jurisdiction. Eve... I am prepared to meet him."
Eve nodded approvingly at his seamless compliance. She extended her hand. "Take my hand, and we will walk through those doors together."
Rose reached out, his synthetic fingers locking firmly into hers.